The present disclosure pertains to communication systems and more particularly to communication systems supporting group calls. Group calls are similar to conference calls in which a number of subscribers are interconnected for the purpose of common conversation. Group calls may be performed between both wireless and wireline users.
In the past, group calls were initiated by an originating user calling and establishing connection with a first participating user, then another participating user, etc. The originating user controlled the selection and implemented the connection to each of the participating users. This is very often a time consuming process. Further, the originating user had to have the capability to initiate conference calls via the originating user's local network.
More recent advances in technology have provided networks with more advanced features for supporting group call functions. These arrangements typically involve push-to-talk (PTT) services. The group call interconnections may be made between wireless and/or wireline participants via the internet, for example, or may exist between devices in a narrow-band trunked radio architecture. Typically, members of groups for group calls are statically defined. That is, a user, or administrator working on behalf of the user, indicates to the switching and/or or radio network a list of participants of a talk group at the time of the call or in advance of the call. The group members could be provisioned in the network by the user or an agent, and then provided some form of group identity, for example, to make the call. Then, at a future time, an originating user may perform some signaling to indicate that he wishes to establish a communication session (e.g., group call) with each of the pre-designated participants in the defined talk group. An originating user, or an agent thereof, may modify the originating user's group membership at any time, perhaps affiliating the originating user with new talk groups, or disaffiliating the originating user with other previously associated talk groups.
Once a radio affiliates with a particular group, it will receive all communications sent by other members of that group. An entity within a radio communications network that has affiliation information can use then affiliation information to properly distribute communications from one affiliated radio to all other affiliated radios in a particular group. Radios may affiliate with one or more groups at a time, and may change their affiliation over time, affiliating with new groups and disaffiliating with prior groups.
In one example, an originating user may be a Police Chief and may be a member of a “Police-Supervisors” group and an “Emergency Responders” group, and may receive, or be configured to receive, audio from group members in those two groups. The “Emergency Responders” group may be set at a higher priority than the “Police-Supervisors” group, such that the originating user's radio is provided with the higher priority group audio (e.g., “Emergency Responders”) in place of the “Police-Supervisors” group whenever audio is available or detected in the “Emergency Responders” group. For example, a switch, group communications/PTT server, or other device in a service provider network may arbitrate the channels and provide the originating user's radio with the highest priority audio. In other embodiments, the originating user's radio may be configured to scan radio channels associated with the higher priority group more often, or to switch to a channel associated with the higher priority group when communications in the higher priority group are detected on a different channel.
As new groups are added or re-defined in the communications system, the originating user may be removed from one or more of the groups, and may be associated with one or more new groups. For example, the originating user may be removed from the “Emergency Responders” group and added to the “Highway Patrol Emergency Responders” group.
In the aforementioned communications system, there may be circumstances where a second originating user wishes to be affiliated with, and able to monitor and/or communicate with, a same set of groups as the first originating user.
For example, a trainee or second-in-command may wish to follow the Police Chief's radio and duplicate the media streams that the police chief's radio receives. Presently, this action requires the second originating user (e.g., the trainee or second-in-command in the example above) to manually duplicate the group membership requests of the first originating user, and/or the second originating user to configure his or her radio to monitor the same group channel(s) as the first originating user using the same prioritization algorithm as the first user. Even in this instance, allowing the second originating user to duplicate the first originating user's group memberships may raise security concerns. Finally, there is no current solution for tracking group membership over wide area and geographically disperse networks.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method and apparatus for providing a group communications follow mode that allows a second originating user to follow a first originating user, and provides additional security mechanisms throughout the process.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.